“I was never a good student. I always prefered learning things on my own outside of class. When I was about 18, I started to wisit temples, shrines and tea houses in Kyoto and nara; There's a lot of great traditional architecture in the area. I was studying architecture by going to see actual building, and reading books about them.”

Azuma House, Osaka, Japan

Rokko Residential Conjunction, Kobe, Japan

Church of the Light, Osaka, Japan

Church on the Water, Tomamu, Japan

Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany

“As an architect you have to do your best work for any project, but for me the most satisfying thing is when architecture can do something to make people's lives better, to inspire them.”

Atelier in Oyodo, Osaka, Japan

Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Forth Worth, USA

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St Louis, USA

Armani World Headquarters, Milan, Italy

Vitra Seminar House, Weil am Rhein, Germany

Stone Hill Center, Williamstown, USA

Water Temple, Awaji Island, Japan

Museum of Wood Culture, Kami, Japan

Koshino House, Hyogo, Japan

Japan Pavillion, Expo `92, Sevilha, Spain

Ryotaro Shiba Memorial Museum, Higashiosaka, Japan

“... in my life I have done many things, at one time I was a boxer... I was never a good student. I always preferred learning things on my own.”

Awaji-Yumebutai, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

About the author of this post

My name is Marcelo Seferin, I’m an architect from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the chief architect at Seferin Arquitetura, an office that works with architecture, interior design and sustainability projects.